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Topic: top entrance and entrance reducer (Read 2149 times)

Nothing really new here but this is how I am applying some of what I have learned from others on this board and elsewhere:

I think using top entrances has a lot to recommend it. There is, however, also the need for an entrance reducer for top entrances up here due to blowing snow in the winter. Nearly anything will do, even stuffing in straw in the fall but because we like things to look a little nicer and there is some benefit of standardization I have worked out a system for top entrances by modifying commercial equipment.

First I take a standard migratory cover and glue a shim to either side to make the entrance. I also drill out the edges to receive bolts which will hold the entrance reducer. I keep a piece of drilled out trim (see below) handy when I set the bolts the proper depth so they will hold a reducer snugly. I then apply a small amount of glue to help keep the bolts in place.

The entrance reducer is made by cutting a piece of trim to length and making 3, 5/8" holes with your standard drill. One to receive each bolt and third for an entrance. The entrance is off to the side so that any snow that might blow in stays off of the center of the hive where the cluster is most likely to be.

This ought to work as well as standardized equipment in keeping bees alive through the winter. I guess I would need a ten year double blind study to say for sure. Or perhaps you see a problem and can save me some heartache?

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“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” J.R.R. Tolkien

I'm not expert at it, still playing with my hive configurations myself. The only issue I see that jumps out at me is the lack of adjustment. The entrance is either all the way open or all the way reduced. A fist full of shingles a little thicker on the end than your shim wedges would do the trick though. You could just stuff them in until the entrance was as small or as large as you like. Thanks for sharing

Adam

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I am only using this for winters to keep out snow and slow the heat exchange. @ other times in the year I just use weeds or folded cardboard to reduce the entrance for week hives through out the growing season.

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“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” J.R.R. Tolkien

I generally close up the bottom but do a rough job of it so sometimes there is enough room for a small entrance @ the bottom. I find that nucs will start by using that bottom crack and later move to the top; even quicker if the top is facing south and the closed up bottom is facing west.

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“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” J.R.R. Tolkien

>When you use a top entrance instead of the bottom entrance do the bees put a lot of brood in the top of the hive

Their instincts are to store honey over the brood nest, so not really.

> does the queen move up or stay in the bottom two deeps?

The queen goes where she wants in my hives. Top or bottom entrance I've seen queens laying in four boxes. She doesn't "stay" anywhere, but the brood nest is usually consolidated together and not scattered. But it does expand up through the middle sometimes. But this has to do with no excluder and nothing to do with top entrances.